So I don't know if this really belongs here, or if I should talk about it, but here goes nothing.

So I'll start saying I bought Oblivion a long time ago now. I fully played it and had lots of fun (who doesn't), but felt it was empty, and started installing mods. As anyone who has tried to install mods for their first time, i had some crashes, trouble and many errors that bugged my game beyond repair. So I stopped playing and a few months later the game started to call me, pleading me to play it. I couldn't resist the temptation so I installed it again and fixed the errors (most of them). School and work kicked in, so i had to abandon once more the glorious world of Oblivion.
This has been basically my style of playing Oblivion. Playing for a month and abruptly stopping playing. Until yesterday, when a sudden urge told me to play Oblivion, but to my surprise, I couldn't find the disc anywhere, and i mean anywhere.
This is when the thought of, ''getting Oblivion borrowed from the Internet'' came to my mind, of course, I immediatly discarded this thought. But would it be legal to download something you already have? Shouldn't I be able to restore what I had bought? I still have GOTY Disc 2, and I only need the CD that lets me play it. What would Jesus Do? What would YOU do?
I've also been lurking this forums for quite a long time, and this certain event has awaken me. Hi.

TL;DR : Bought Oblivion. Lost Oblivion. Should Download Oblivion?

No, previously purchasing does give you legal right to commit piracy.

If I have money and lose it, that does not give me the legal right to take someone elses.

You may want to contact Bethesda, and/or the place you bought it from.

If you registered. Or if you have one of the disks they may provide you with a new disk so you can play again. I believe I've heard of them doing this for scratched or otherwise damaged disks. You would probably just need to prove somehow that you purchased it.

Although I really don't like Steam, Bethesda might say that this is the reason they are moving to it. Because with Steam you don't need a disk. You just need an account and occasional internet access. Again, I'm not a big fan of having to install Steam for FO:NV, but one advantage is that I don't need the disk.

What has been said. Downloading an illegal version of the game, irrespective of whether you own it, have owned it or intend to own it is classed as piracy here.